Rupee touches 67 to a dollar ahead of Fed meeting, hits 27-month low

MUMBAI: The rupee on Monday fell below the 67-mark to the dollar — its lowest level in 30 months — as importers rushed to buy the greenback amid concerns of a US Federal Reserve interest rate hike later this week.

The currency resumed sharply lower at 67.09 per dollar from the weekend’s close of 66.88 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and closed at the same figure after volatile trading — 21 paise or 0.31% down. It was also hit by China’s new currency index, revealed over the weekend, which overvalues the yuan, hinting that there could be further depreciation.

However, a smart rebound in local equities capped the rupee’s losses to some extent.

The rupee fall fuelled speculation that the RBI, which regulates the currency movement by buying and selling dollars, would soon intervene to bring stability to the Indian currency.

Forex experts, however, say that it’s not the US Fed decision alone that is making the currency markets nervous. “It is a combination of various factors that is spooking the markets,” said Anindya Banerjee, associate vice-president (currency derivatives) at Kotak Securities. “The world is flirting with recession currently. Then you also have the huge amount of risk from commodity producers who have taken on large debt. So stress is building up.”

On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee of the US Federal Reserve will meet to decide on whether interest rates need to be raised.

Meanwhile brushing aside global volatility, the Sensex rebounded over 106 points, or 0.42%, to 25,150. The broader Nifty ended 39.60 points, or 0.52%, higher at 7,650. NEW DELHI: India has risen five rungs to 130 among 188 countries on the UN’S Human Development Index (HDI) on improved life spans and social protection, but the country continues to trail poorer nations such as Iraq, Bangladesh and even Pakistan, in women’s progress, children’s status and basic healthcare.

The latest HDI report — themed on how access to work in a digitalera labour market can improve lives — termed India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act a “milestone” that has ensured “greater social protection”.

Despite the progress, India’s 2014 HDI score was 0.609, which is below the average of the medium development nations (0.630), according to the report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme.

Although India, the world’s ninth richest country, looks to be scaling up the rankings rather quickly, the picture is not all rosy. When adjusted for inequality, the country’s actual improvement is just one rank since last year.

This means that development has been highly skewed, and causes an overall human development “loss” of 28.6%, underscoring the need for policies that will enable wider, more secure and sustainable employment, the report says.

The findings show gender inequality is a growing risk. For every 1,000 live births, 190 women die from pregnancyrelated causes every year in India. The figure for Bangaldesh and Pakistan is lower at 170. For Sri Lanka, it is even lower at 29. Only 27% of adult women reach at least a secondary level of education in contrast to 56.6% of their male counterparts in India.

In India, the world’s largest democracy by size and population, 12.2% seats in Parliament are held by women, while 20% parliamentary seats are held by women in Pakistan. The maternal mortality ratio of women in war-torn Syria is better at 49 than India.

Iraq too, despite a lower rank, tops India on maternal deaths (67 per 1000 births against India’s 190), share of women-held parliamentary seats (26.5% against India’s 12.2%) and under-five mortality (35 per 1,000 live birth against India’s 52.7).

The HDI report calls upon countries to increase access to employment in a labour-market transformed by digital technology and globalisation. Indian farmers and fishermen who compare wholesale prices and track weath er” on mobile phones increased profits 8%, the report states. Better internet access will enable more people to work from home, increas ing living standards.

Given globalisation and tech nological changes, employment terms tend to be skewed against workers, 46% of them are vul nerable in India. The HDI report says newer forms of trade union ism and worker organisations such as India’s Self-employed Women’s Association of India widely known as SEWA strengthen social protection and need to be supported.

Educational attainments in India are stagnating since 2010 according to the HDI, with mean and expected years of schooling remaining stuck at 5.4 years and 11.7 years respectively since 2011